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Monday, March 16, 2009

Oatmeal Pancakes With Cider Sauce

I know we just had a breakfast-for-dinner post last week, but it was really sounding good when I was planning out the menu this week. And to prepare this Oatmeal Pancakes With Cider Sauce dish, I had to dig deep into the freezer to thankfully find the leftover apple cider I had stashed away.

The dry ingredients for these pancakes mean business - we used a combination of old-fashioned rolled oats that we blitzed in the food processor, buzzing them down until finely ground, and whole-wheat pastry flour. You could get away with regular whole-wheat flour, but I keep the pastry flour around for times like this - it doesn't weigh the final result down as much and isn't as assertive. For a little richness, a bit of dry milk powder is added in, along with a scoop of wheat germ to notch up the nutrition factor. Because we are serving the pancakes with a sweet sauce, they won't need a ton of sugar in the batter either - we just used a piddly tablespoon of brown sugar. The original recipe didn't call for any spice, but I knew that wasn't going to fly with us. So, to give a little warmth to the pancakes, we whisked in cinnamon and just a bit of cardamom for an exotic edge.

For that charming tang we love in pancakes, the majority of wet ingredients is made up of thick buttermilk. When you introduce the wet into the dry ingredients, stir them just until combined - it is fine if the batter is a little lumpy. I also let the batter rest for about 5 minutes or so before I began adding dollops of the batter onto our griddle to cook. If you won't be serving these pancakes right off the griddle, keep them in a low, warm oven until all of them are done.

Rather than using maple syrup, which is undeniably acceptable if you'd rather go that route, we prepared a luscious sauce out of apple cider, brown sugar, lemon juice and potato starch to give thickness. Cornstarch would also be fine if you don't have potato starch! To tie in with the pancake, we also spiced this sauce with cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of cardamom. Delicious as is, it needed one more ingredient for a more rounded flavor and texture - this came in the form of a few pats of butter! This warm, aromatic sauce brought us right back to the memories of autumn - while sweet, it worked more to accentuate the delicate notes in the soft, golden pancakes without clouding their hearty nature.

Just reading your post about preparing your pancakes made me want to have some Joe!They look delicious in the pictures and I bet they tasted great with the cider sauce.I like apple cider a lot and loved your idea of freezing some from the fall bounty. I saw a recipe for apple cake this past weekend that uses cider and now am trying to find some because I really want to make that cake... have I had your brilliant idea I would have some in the freezer... We learn something every day!Ana

You can never post too many breakfast recipes! I love the idea of adding cider. How clever! And these pancakes look totally perfect, which is quite an impressive feat!! (Love the milk powder addition, too.)